Pillow.



J. L. KENNEDY.

PILLOW.

APPLIOATION FILED APR.8, 1910. y

Patented May 17, 1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.v

JOHN L. KENNEDY, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

PILLOW.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application lled April 8, 1910.

T o all whom t 'may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN L. KENNEDY, a

lVashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pillows, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

It is highly desirable, especially for the sick, to provide pillows which permit fresh air to come into cont-actwith the head of the user, and of which all parts may be readily cleansed or sterilized by boiling or otherwise. For tent life, generally, for travelers, and for use 011 cars, and ships and in hospitals, it is a material advantage to have pillows and the like adapted for collapsing so that they may occupy unusually small space.- It is also desirable to be able to render the pillow more or less yielding', at will.

The object of this invention is to provide at small cost pillows possessing all the advantages just suggested.

The preferred embodiment of my invenin which:

Figure l is a plan view of a pillow or the like made in accordance with my invention, a part of the cover or casing being broken away to show interior construction. Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2, Fig. l. Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, show, respectively, different modifications in certain of the smaller details of construction.

The pillow without its cover consists of duplicate oppositely turned stifened pieces A, A adjustably spaced apart by rods B and marginally connected on all sides by a yielding body portion C. The entire body is usually incased in a closely fitting cover D open at one end and having its margins overlapped and secured by ordinary fasteners E similar to those commonly used upon gloves. The end pieces are preferably formed by pressing spring steel sheets into the form of elongated cups or caps of suitable thickness and providing each cup With numerous Ventilating perforations A2 and also with a row of marginal perforations at short uniform distances apart, the row extending entirely around the cup. Preferably these latter perforat-ions are given rounded edges by permanently fixing an eyelet A3 in each. In a plane midway between the two longer edges of the cups are placed Strut-like bars or rods B, which may Patented May 17, 1910. serial No. 554,092.

conveniently be cylindrical tubes. At one end, each tube removably fits over a long, inwardly projecting stud G which is brazed or otherwise rigidly fixed to the corresponding cup, and at its opposite end each receives a long screw H passing through the wall of the companion cup and arranged to rotate without advance in the same, this result being secured in the devices illustrated by providing the screw with a broad head fitting the outer surface of the cup and providing it with an annular flange H which fits against the inner surface. The studs are preferably non-cylindrical so that they may prevent the rods or tube from rotating. Obviously, the turning of the screws increases or diminishes the distance between the cups, according to the direction of rotation. The margins of the two cups are connected by a flexible pillow body which as a whole has the form of a flattened cylinder, and in the form illustrated in Figs. l and 2, this body member is made up of a series of cords or cables I each of which passes through two corresponding eyelets of the two cup mar'- gins. These cords may be integrally connected as a whole or in sets by using long cords and passing them across, within the cup from one eyelet to the next, as shown in Fig. l. ,If desired, each cord may be independent and be provided with a hook J at each end, as shown in Fig. 3; or each independent cord may have one end knotted or otherwise held at one end and be provided with a hook at the opposite end only, so that the hooks at one end being detached, all the cords will be carried by the opposite cup, A', Fig. 4L.

In some cases I use instead of the cords a wire fabric or netting', K, Fig. 5, and in other cases I use a textile fabric, L, Fig. 6, woven with numerous slightly separated small openings K. With the wire or textile fabric marginal hooks are provided to engage in the eyelets, respectively, so that the fabric forming the central body member may be placed under the desired tension by means of the extensible rods connecting the cup-like end pieces. In using any of the forms, the end pieces and struts are assembled, the central pillow body member, of either kind, is added, and the screws are then turned until the desired tension is obtained, by means of a screwdriver, and the cover is then put in place and secured by IOO the glove fasteners. By a reverse operation, the whole may obviously be disassembled, and may then be packed into a very small space. All the metal used is usually rustless or rendered so by proper treatment, and the whole pillow may if desired be sterilized by boiling water-without injury, without disassembling, and without encountering any difliculty in drying. Usually, however, the washable cover is removed and separately cleansed when necessary.

It is to be observed that when the middle portion of the pillow is pressed, the cup walls yield temporarily, allowing the middle port-ion to sag, and that thereby the pillow is comfortable and has all desirable softness, and it may be further added that when properly made the structure is very light, and that it allows a somewhat free circulation of air through its body and into actual and direct contact with numerous small portions of the skin. lt is clear, therefore, that perspiration is rapidly carried away, and that the person is thereby kept dry at all times.

What l claim is:

l. ln a pillow or the like, the combination with two cap end pieces of spring` met-al, of a flexible pillow body member secured at short corresponding intervals to the entire marginal portion of each end piece, to connect the two peripherally, and rigid bars of adjustable length connecting said cap end pieces.

2. A pillow or the like consisting of similar oblong end pieces peripherally connected on all sides by numerous cords and held at the desired distance apart by a plurality of rods of adjustable length lying within the space inclosed by the cords.

3. In a pillow or the like, the combination with two oppositely turned, outwardly conveX end pieces of spring metal each provided on all sides with marginal perforations, of central rods of adjustable length holding said end pieces parallel and at the desired distance from each other.

4l. The combination with two oppositely turned cup-like end pieces of spring metal, of a flexible open-work pillow body member connecting on all sides corresponding` marginal points of said end pieces, and means for forcibly increasing the separation of the end pieces by the action of screws projecting through one end piece.

5. The combination with two similar oblong', cup-like end pieces of spring metal one provided with inwardly projecting, rigid studs inaplane midway between the planes of its longer margins and the other with correspondingly located inwardly projecting screws revolubly but not longitudinally movable in the bottom wall of the cup, strut-like rods each having one end adapted to slip over one of said studs and the opposite end adapted to receive the corresponding screw, and a flexible pillow body member connecting the marginal portions of the cups at numerous points on all sides of the latter.

ln testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN L. KENNEDY.

Titnesses JAMES L. CRAWFORD, R. CRAIG GREENE. 

